LING6028 Topics in Language Acquisition
1st semester, 2009-10
Lectures: Saturday 9:30 am – 12:30pm
Venue: M151
Lecturer: Dr. Angel Chan (Email: angelwschan@gmail.com)
The course introduces current linguistic and psycholinguistic approaches to language
acquisition across a range of acquisition contexts. Key theoretical issues and classical and
modern methodologies used in language acquisition research will be introduced. This
course is also geared towards the Hong Kong context, covering the following topics: (i)
acquisition of Cantonese as a first language; (ii) bilingual first language acquisition of
Cantonese and English; (iii) child and adult second language acquisition; and (iv)
children with specific language impairment in Hong Kong. The course is intended for
those with some experience of language teaching.
Assessment: 100% by coursework. Students should write a term paper on a topic of
interest to them, for example:


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A review of studies in the acquisition of an area of grammar (passive sentences,
relative clauses, etc) by Chinese child/adult speakers
A research proposal for studying acquisition of an area of grammar in a first
or/and second language (e.g. Cantonese, English, Mandarin) in Hong Kong
A case study of one or more children/adults acquiring an area of grammar
Schedule:
Lecture Date
Topic
1&2
Introduction to the study of language acquisition
Sep 5 & 12
Methods in language acquisition research
3&4
Sep 19 & 26
Acquisition of Cantonese as a first language
Oct 3
Public holiday: mid-autumn festival
Oct 10 & 17
Bilingual first language acquisition in Hong Kong children
Oct 24
No lecture: Open day
7&8
Oct 31 & Nov 7
Child and adult second language acquisition
9 & 10
Nov 14 & 21
Children with specific language impairment in Hong Kong
11
Nov 28
Summary and students’ presentations
Dec 14 (to be confirmed)
Term paper due
5&6
LING6028 Topics in Language Acquisition
1st semester, 2009-10
Basic Readings:

Introduction to the study of language acquisition
Hoff, E. (2005). (3rd ed.) Language Development. Wadsworth. Chapter 1.
Ellis, R. (1993) Second Language Acquisition Research: How does it help teachers? ELTJ 47/1, 3-11
Ellis, R. (1997). Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 1.

Methods in language acquisition research
Chan, A., Meints, K., Lieven, E. & Tomasello, M. (in press). Young Children's Comprehension of English
SVO Word Order Revisited: Testing the Same Children in Act-Out and Intermodal Preferential
Looking Tasks. Cognitive Development.
Larsen-Freeman, D. & M. Long (1990) An Introduction to Second Language Research. London: Longman.
Chapter 2.

Acquisition of Cantonese as a first language
Chan, A., Lieven, E. & Tomasello, M. (2009). Children’s Understanding of the AgentPatient Relations in the Transitive Construction: Cross-linguistic Comparisons Between Cantonese,
German and English. Cognitive Linguistics.
Lee, T. H-T. (1996). Theoretical Issues in Language Development and Chinese Child Language. In C.-T.
Huang and Y.-H.A. Li (eds.) New Horizons in Chinese Linguistics, 293-356.Kluwer.

Bilingual first language acquisition in Hong Kong children
Chan, A. (2009). The Cantonese Double Object Construction with bei2 ‘give’ in Bilingual Children: The
Role of Input. International Journal of Bilingualism.
Yip, V. & S.Matthews. 2000. Syntactic transfer in a Cantonese-English bilingual child. Bilingualism:
Language and Cognition 3 (3), 193-208.
Yip, V. 2006. Early bilingual acquisition in the Chinese context. In Li Ping, Li-Hai Tan, Elizabeth Bates
and Ovid Tzeng (eds.), Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics. Vol. 1 Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, pp. 148-162.

Child and adult second language acquisition
Chan, A., Yip, V & Matthews, S. (2008). Bilingual Children's Comprehension of Double Object
Constructions in Cantonese and English. Poster presented at the Second Language Research Forum, in
Hawaii, US. October 2008
Gass, S. M. & Selinker, L. (2001). Second Language Acquisition. An Introductory Course. (2nd edition)
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Chapter 1.
Paradis, J. (2007). Second language acquisition in childhood. In E. Hoff and M. Shatz (Eds.), Handbook of
Language Development (pp. 387-406). Oxford: Blackwell.
Ritchie, W.C. & Bhatia, T.K. (1996). (eds). The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition. San Diego:
Academic Press. Chapter 1.

Children with specific language impairment in Hong Kong
Hoff, E. (2005). (3rd ed.) Language Development. Wadsworth. Chapter 7.
Fletcher, P., Stokes, S. and Wong, A. (2006). Specific Language Impairment in Cantonese. In Li, P., Tan,
L.-H., Bates, E. & Tzeng, O.J.L. (eds). Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics, volume 1.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.296-307.
References:
Bialystok, E. (1995). In Other Words: the Science and Psychology of Second-language Acquisition. Basic
Books.
Clark, E. V. (2009). First Language Acquisition (2nd ed). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cook, V. (2001). Second Language Learning and Language Teaching. Oxford University Press.
Cook, V. (1993). Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Ellis, R. (1997). Second Language Acquisition. Oxford University Press.
Genesee, F., Paradis, P. & Crago, M. (2004). Ch. 4 Bilingual first language acquisition. In Dual Language
Development and Disorders. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., pp. 63-89.
Kramsch, C. (2000). Second Language Acquisition, Applied Linguistics, and the
Teaching of Foreign Languages. The Modern Language Journal, 84 (3), pp. 311-326.
Law, S.-P., Weekes, B. S., & Wong, A. (2009). Language Disorders in Speakers of Chinese. Clevedon, UK:
Multilingual Matters.
Lightbown, P. (2000) Anniversary Article: ‘Classroom SLA Research and Second Language Teaching.’
Applied Linguistics 21/4: 431-462
McDaniel, McKee & Cairns (1996). (eds.), Methods for Assessing Children's Syntax. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.
Selinker, L. (1992). Rediscovering Interlanguage. London: Longman.
Yip, V. (1995). Interlanguage and Learnability: from Chinese to English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Yip, V. & Matthews, S. (2007). The Bilingual Child: Early Development and Language Contact.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.